Mayor Bruce Harrell and Kalina Chung cut the ribbon for Hoa Mai Park

On July 27, 2024, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), Seattle Parks and Recreation, and Friends of Little Saigon hosted a community ribbon cutting celebration for the new Hoa Mai Park in Little Saigon. The celebration included music, food, neighbors, lion dance performance by Mak Fai Kung Fu, and children’s activities.

ARTS commissioned local artist, Kalina Chung, to create a public art piece for the park. Titled Through, the artwork is a free-standing piece created through many conversations with Little Saigon and CID community members during lock-down. Standing 24 feet tall at its highest point, it serves as an entryway to the park from S. Jackson St. and is inspired by Vietnamese Tube Houses.

“The Office of Arts & Culture is honored to have Kalina Chung’s new artwork, Through, added to the Seattle Civic Art Collection. Through captures the spirit of Seattle’s 1% for Art program to bring artists and the public together to create works that proudly represents our diverse communities.

Kalina started this project at the height of lock-down during the pandemic and took it upon herself to connect with community members via web meetings to ensure she created a piece that truly represented the Little Saigon neighborhood. Little Saigon immediately embraced this artwork and values Through as an icon that represents the people who make up the fabric of that community.”

Jason Huff, ARTS Public Art Program Manager

Chung’s studio research combines various sculptural processes and media including clay, glass, wood, metal, and found objects. Inspired by both daily surroundings and gathered moments, her work’s content revolves around universal themes related to human relationships, existence and interaction – our tangible and intangible connection with the natural world.

“This artwork titled Through speaks to a shared sense of home, air flow, the feeling of a shared breath. This piece is inspired by the site’s history and community; intended to reflect the spatial and temporal passageway created by this park.

We currently stand on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. This space is also formerly known as Little Tokyo. The Little Saigon neighborhood carries a lot of history and as we gather in this shared space, we are strengthening and creating new memories of many to come.”

Kalina Chung, Artist

Kalina Chung is a second-generation Asian-American woman of both Chinese and Vietnamese descent. Her parents immigrated as teenagers from Vietnam to Seattle, where they met and started a family. They frequented Little Saigon nearly every day for a bánh mì at Saigon Deli, pho at The Boat (Phở Bắc), or groceries from Lam’s Seafood. Kalina was a student of the Hengda Dance Academy, where she found a sense of belonging and a deeper understanding of her heritage. Little Saigon and the CID truly shaped her identity, and she hopes to connect her family’s story to the stories of other community members through her artwork. Kalina Chung received her BFA from the Three-Dimensional Forum Program (3D4M) at the University of Washington (2016) and was a participant in City of Seattle’s Public Art Boot Camp (2017).